Investigating the film culture and the respective film festivals of this wider area, this book reveals how a culturally-informed geopolitical scope can ultimately shape a distinct and evolving take on the world. Exploring the history and politics of film festivals that are located in non-Western territories and that are thus often influenced by distinctive ideologues and agendas permits us to not only register difference but also see the logic that shapes the diversity. These are festivals that foreground cinematic texts from lesser-known aesthetic and conceptual traditions and display them in unique contexts. The cinemas and the narratives featured here reflect the political and cultural dynamics of an area that alternates between vibrant and volatile.

This book then looks in much detail at the large international and smaller national film festivals that take place in the Middle East and North Africa: their programming, audience development and event organisation. This collection of essays investigates the circuit of films, the impact of festivals and the representation of the Middle Eastern peoples, cultures and languages on international screens. This is a study of the many festivals that have shaped the cultural identities of the region in the past, as well as the new and vibrant festivals that permeate the region.

What is the importance of film festivals in the context of film culture at large? What logic reigns within the film festival galaxy? Are film festivals tools of power and prestige that make or break the fate of a film? Or do they effectively seal diverse and unique cinema from the wider public whilst simultaneously professing to celebrate it? What are the key features and who are the key stakeholders of the film festival? What, if anything, is wrong with the concept of ‘festival films’? What makes a good film festival good or a bad one bad? It is these and other questions that are raised and treated in the classic texts included in this collection. Festivals, for so long a key component of film culture, have been ignored in film studies scholarship that is still dominated by textual approaches. They were neither consistently discussed in the public domain nor were they included in teaching related to film history. This is now rapidly changing. Nowadays, we see a proliferation of concrete and general studies on film festivals and the emergence of a fuller understanding of the actual dynamics of film culture. It is in this context that we offer a representative anthology that collects some of the important texts that have fostered the thinking on festivals so far.

Most people associate film festivals with premieres and the dissemination of the latest trends in cinema. However, the past three decades has also seen the rise of festivals dedicated to re-presenting cinema’s past through restorations, retrospectives and rediscoveries. This anthology is the first to chart the development of this phenomenon, while also considering such key issues as: the relationship between archives and festivals, the role of live music and the event screening, canon formation and the impact of digital technologies. Featuring writings by Paolo Cherchi Usai, Ian Christie, David Robinson, interviews with Tom Luddy and Nick Varley, and chapters by festival specialists and scholars, Archival Film Festivals contains a dozen case studies from around the globe, five interviews with festival directors, programmers and distributors, a themed bibliography and a table of archival film festivals from around the world. Out NOW!

The first study of its kind, Alex Fischer’s Sustainable Projections bases his new theory of film festival management on field-defining theories, interviews with practitioners as well as his own experiences. He realistically portrays the ups and downs, as well as the struggles and rewards of film festival management, as he suggests a flexible framework within which to work and research. In so doing, he opens up a fresh angle on economic, political and social aspects in film festivals, useful for all those involved in, attracted by and enjoying film festivals.

Digital Disruption helps to make sense of what has happened in the short but turbulent history of on-line distribution. It provides a realistic assessment of the genuine and not-so-promising methods that have been tried to address the disruptions that moving from ‘analogue dollars’ to ‘digital cents’ has provoked in the film industry.

Film festivals not only build markets and audiences, they also provide platforms for those advocating for change. Bringing together the perspectives of scholars, programmers, filmmakers and activists, Film Festivals and Activism provides essential insight into the nature, function and practice of activist film festivals.

The most exciting developments in world cinema over the past two decades have been linked to East Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. Films made in East Asia triumph at festivals around the globe. In the latest volume of the Film Festivals Yearbook, scholars from the University of St. Andrews and beyond chart these cutting-edge developments in global film.

Film Festivals and Imagined Communities, the second volume in the Film Festival Yearbook series, brings together essays about festivals that use international cinema to mediate the creation of transnational ‘imagined communities’.

The Festival Circuit, features articles related to the global proliferation of film festivals and focuses on the dynamics of the film festival circuit, including the roles played by individual festivals as nodes on this complex network and the cultural policies that shape its channels of film exhibition and distribution.